Integrated healthcare doesn’t have to be seen just through the lens of new-agey interconnectedness. Research and technology are part of this system, as is administrative systems. Electronic medical records may not be sexy, but they do have the potential to improve healthcare services and health outcomes. Reducing the barriers for a doctor to check to see if a patient is already being prescribed opioids or else has a history of opioid addiction can clearly help save lives. Clearly documented medical care instructions can help respect individual wishes and personal dignity.

In terms of paying for care and the national healthcare system, one of the biggest ongoing issues is a chargemaster that sets the billing practices at individual health sites. These practices incentivize wildly inflated rates so that discounted rates can be negotiated with health insurance companies, making the true cost of the service hard to discern, hard to measure, and thus hard to improve. Managed health networks can help introduce better protocols for integrated care, but when this is done without also working to reduce waste and inefficiencies, the whole system suffers. And this defeats the purpose, while turning integrated healthcare back into an overhyped buzzword, rather than an actual solution that improves care.